>> can't do it with a straight face. >> talk to the happened. >> more "fast money," 5 p.m. tonight. follow me on twitter. sue and tyler, help me. >> halftime is over. "power lunch" and the second half of the trading day starts now. >> help is on the way, scott. i'm here. sue's there. 47 days from the fiscal cliff. those are the guys that need help. president obama meeting with big labor leaders today almost that bring us any closer for farther away from a deal? the cliff, a deal. millions of us use the product he invented, this man, right here, to keep our computers safe from virus. as we first reported yesterday, john mcafee is on the run in central america. he is wanted for murder. we have new information this hour, including his side of the story.

and tens of thousands of people are still without power in the 12 wealthiest counties in the country. my mere and father-in-law got theirs back last night, but they still have no heat, no hot water and no laundry. we sent gary gam minute ski into the mess in his home up to with two cameras and what he came back with will stun you. sue is live at the new york stock exchange. sue? >> i have seep a little bit of that ty, you don't want to miss gary's story in a few minutes much the markets have been up and down on either side unchanged today. right now the dow is in the green by 22 points, the s and p up about 2.75 points. nasdaq negative by a quarter percent. gold market, a little profit taking there, well up above the 1700 level. west texas intermediate crude down two-thirds of a percent. all of this as the count down to the fiscal cliff ticks away. your money is literally being held hostage by washington's inability to make a deal. labor leaders invited to the

white house, meeting with the president since late this morning. we are keeping track of that for us here the list. several leaders from the american labor movement getting first-person attention from the president today, including richard trumka from the afl-cio, amidst many others. tomorrow, you should know that the president will meet with 12 ceos. that list includes frequent cnbc guest david poe day and president and ceo of honey w he has been on power lunch a number of times. on the list, jeff immelt of ge and ford's alan mulally. it is quite a list, ty, and we are the show leading up to that very important meeting tomorrow. so you don't want to miss it. >> sue, indeed we are. we are having our own very important meeting right now with representative gregory meeks, a democrat from new york city. mr. meeks, welcome and congratulations on your re-election. >> thank you, tyler. good being with you. >> let's talk about the fiscal cliff a little bit. what specifically would you be willing to yield on of the things that are very important

to you to help us avoid the fiscal cliff? >> i think that conversation that everything's on the table is on the table. for me, it has to be balanced. we have to make sure that there are some things very important to me, like i'm sure there's some things important to my colleagues. you can't have it i know i have been talking to my constituents and letting them know that pain is going to be on the way but it has to be emquickable pain. for me, i'm with the president. everything is on the table, we have to talk, can't be why where it is one-sided and somebody tells me it has to be all cuts and no revenue. >> has anything, mr. meeks, really changed. ♪ president won re-election, he would say that is a vindication of his position. but at the same time, we have a balance of power here, a tricameral, three parts of government. and one house is unlikely to go along with his insistence that tax rates go up on the highest

earners here. has anything changed and what specifically would you be willing to give in on? >> things have changed. the american people have spoken. the president has been re-elected. his voice doing -- his issues have been doing that re-election was that the top 1%, the top 2%, needs to contribute and pay more. and i think that that is clearly -- was clearly spoken by the american people. i think that speaker boehner, on the conversation that he had recently, shows that he is ready to move into a different direction. i think that he was ready to make a deal before. but his confidence was such i believe held to grover norquist that they couldn't move on the revenue. >> has that changed? has that changed? >> i think so. the fact that the president was reelected, the fact we have gaped seats in the house, the fact that we are two years from another election, i think that has changed. the fact that a lot of the tea partiers have lost or in very

lee election and/or two years of experience. have to understand there is a real compromise in working together in trying to get something done. and i have confidence as a result that we will get something done. >> let's talk a little bit about the tragedy that befelled much of your district in keeps, the rockaways and many of those folks out there. are customers of line park the long island power authority what is your message to lipa today? are you satisfied with their response? >> no, their response was much too slow. you are supposed to have a situation where in cases of an emergency, there's a rapid response. and i know this was a severe storm, probably the worst storm, i know the worst storm i have seep in my lifetime in new york but their response has been far too slow. seems to be for another period of time. as well as, you know, with the coordination, i think, between lipa and oem and fema, you know exthey should be -- about to get to where i think we should have

been six, seven days ago. >> if this was japan, the ceo would fall on his sword and bow in front of his customers and resign. should the ceo of lipa resign? >> i'm with the governor of the state of new york. i think governor cuomo, very on top of this situation, has to do a complete and say, they will do a complete, thorough investigation into this matter, see where the chips fall and if the chips fall where it should you can the responsibility of the ceo, that's where the buck stops and that's what will happen. the governor says he will do a complete investigation. >> mr. meeks, thank you, as always, for coming and joining us. we appreciate your candor and your time. we are counting on you. we are watching. >> thank you. good to be with you. >> all righty. we will have much more on those power problems on long island and the outer boroughs of new york city with gary kaminsky in about 15 minutes. we sent him into the field, his hometown, to show us july how bad things there are still, two

weeks after the big storm hit. the biggest fear relying to the fiscal cliff is whether it will whipsaw us back into a recession. diana olick with how housing could fall off the cliff. she is live in d.c. diana? >> reporter: the main drivers are short sale, the bank let's you sell for less than the mortgage and lope modifications where the bank slashes principal. now you banks have done close to $11 billion worth of this debt relief just this year and that's why foreclosures are dropping and overall home prices are recovering. debt forgiveness, though, is usually taxable, but not since the debt relief passed under george w. bush, but it expires december 31st of this year and it is in big fiscal cliff play. if it is not extended and people are suddenly faced with paying taxes on their short sales and load lone modifications debt relief, all that is dry up and you will see a new spike in

foreclosures. now, here's the twist, that obviously hurts housing but it could actually benefit home retailers, like home depot, which reported great earnings today. that's because much of its gapes lately are from investors rehabbing foreclosures. investors have been inhaling distressed properties, fixing them up and turning them into rentals. now the trouble for investors now has been a lack of distressed supply but again, if tax relief goes over the fiscal cliff, that all changes. so unfortunately, it is kind of a double-edged sword for house. tyler? >> die yap nah, thank you very much. to learn more about the fiscal cliff and see how cnbc is pushing for a solution before it's too late go to rise above.cnbc.com. sue? ty, let's get the traders reaction from the market now. kenny polcari joins me, independent trader here on the floor of the nyse and the cmc,

jim muir yo. everybody does seem to be waiting if there was movement in washington. you reacted, visibly reacted to mr. meeks, congressman meeks' statement about the fact that the political dynamic changed after this election. it has changed. for those who think nothing changed, look again. the tea party took it on the chip at this election. >> right. >> i think what the american people said, the american voter said, listen, we are tired of this you guys come together, we need to you compromise, we understand it is going to be painful, you got to come to the center of the room. grover norquist who is? he the most powerful man unelected, how did he get all these guys to sign off on that no pledge, no tax pledge? >> no tax pledge. >> the fact it is not going to work like that. americans understand that and held host am, like you said, until there is really a decision. you would agree with most of that do you not, jim, are we going to get any traction in the market? >> i think that the market is showing us exactly where it's at. this slope downward over the last three weeks is telling us that it is concerned but not manic.

people were voting on other issues, and now they say this is a mandate on taxes, we can live with that but inconsistent cis on that, but the market is not completely pappiced. it is definitely in a slow, sluggish spot, waiting to hear from them, i don't think we are going to hear much in a while. >> what do you do in this market exkenny? >> tough remain cautious, he is right it is not in a panic mode at all. people who think it is they should realize it, in fact is not. people making very conscious decisions. if you are a long-term trade, these are the days you wait for.

>> positive press about this company which provides, among other thing, credit rating information about consumers. some people feel it will benefit from improvement in the housing as well as the rental market. of course, over the weekend, baron's noting this this company was one of the ones that managed to beat on the top and bottom line, a little bit impervious to concerns about the fiscal cliff. up 2 1/2%, he cequa facts. john mcafee is wanted for murder in belize. now he is telling his side of the story. plus the bizarre but clever way former cia director david petraeus was communicating with his girlfriend, next.

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welcome back to "power lunch," i'm mary thompson with market flash. ak steel down over 4%. the ask warning the fourth

quarter loss will be larger than expected in large part because of lower steel price and larger income tax charge. also selling 25 million share also about a quarter of its counts. that is putting pressure on its shares today. tyler, back to you. >> thank you. shocking new developments in the sex scape dal that brought down the head of the cia, jeep petraeus. another high-level military leader now entangled in the mess. he is the top u.s. commander in afghanistan, jeep john allen. eamon javers live in washington with details. >> reporter: well this scandal exploded on friday with the resignation of cia director petraeus. that one caught washington by surprise and then within the past 24 hours, the scape dal has got a whole lot big per, as you say, with now the involvement of the top general in afghanistan. let me walk you through who the players r it can be tricky to keep this cast of characters straight in your own mind. the woman at the center of this scandal seems to be jill kelly. she is a tampa socialite who volunteered at the air force base there and had some kind of

relationship with jeep john allen involving e-mails. the fbi is apparently received 30,000 pages of e-mails between the two that were potentially inappropriate there. but kelly's relationship, whatever it was, with john allen, apparently also caused some concern with paula broadwell. broadwell is the biographer of general david petraeus, who has admitted now to having an affair with the cia director. that's brought down his career. broadwell apparently felt that jill kelly's attentions to petraeus and her social relationship with him might be a threat to her up relationship and apparently cement some e-mails to kelly. we are not clear at all on what those e-mails were all about, guys. but one of the interesting things here is the technique that broadwell and petraeus used to hide the existence of their e-mail correspondence, they opened up anonymous g mail accounts under fictitious names i and simply sent draft e-mails, compose a draft e-mail and not send it, then the other party could check that e-mail account

later and find that draft e-mail and read it and delete it without actually sending it and caution the e-mail trace that would be caused by sending an e-mail. apparently that wasn't good enough to hide all these e-mails from the fbi, which is now investigating all of this and trying to figure out whether any national security secrets were broached in any of this scandal. guys, back to you. >> i think is that the biggest question. very disturbing story. eamon, thank you very much. now a story rock the corporate world, he was the map who helped keep your computer safe from virus. software pioneer john mcafee wanted in a murder case. robert frank has a bizarre story. robert? >> it is a bizarre story. as reported yesterday, john mcafee is wanted for questioning in the murder of another american in the country of belize. now, mcafee is in hiding and refuses to turn himself in. a business associate of mcafee told me this morning that john is being unfairly targeted by the new government in belize. he say he is the police have been "trying to squeeze john for

money" and this murder investigation may be yet another attempt. now, police raided mcafee's compound this spring. they seized guns and drug samples. mcafee was quickly released but his troubles with police have just topped. the police told us that, quote, mcafee is delusional and paranoid and should turn himself in. mcafee's journey to belize is one of the stranger stories in business. he left the u.s. after losing most of his $100 million tech fortune. his plan was to start a biotech company using local jungle plants. here's what he told cnbc's david faber in 2009. >> my life has turned around 180 degrees down here. i mentioned the freedom here. there are virtually no regulations on business. and that can be a bad thing or a good thing. for me, it's a good thing, because i think i have a heart and a social conscience. >> mcafee has not round calls or e-mails, we will be sure, sue, to keep you updated on this very

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another market flash, big lots, down 3.36%. the respect retailer had to sell from hold at deutsche bank, a couple of concerns here. first of all, an increase in promotional activity they say could impact margins in the coming quarters and concerns about sales due to a couple of things, uncertainty about the election, hurricane sandy and uncertainty about the fiscal cliff. sue, back to you. >> speaking of, which mary, thank you, perfect segue, 47 days to go before that fiscal cliff deadline day. taxes will jump. spending will be cut and millions could possibly lose their jobs. our money is being held hostage by washington's failure to solve the problems that they were elected to solve. joanne johnson joins us now, a

wealth adviser with jpmorgan private bank. welcome, joanne, good to have you here. >> good afternoon. >> you deal with a lot of very wealthy people and people in upper income brackets. if they are walk nothing your office today, what's the best advice that you're giving them right now, given the atmosphere that we are facing and the environment that we are going to face in january? >> first thing i would remind them is to expect the up expected. a couple of years ago, we were all stunned when president obama signed into law the tax relief act that extended bush tax cuts and increased transfer tax exemptions to historic levels. we are now looking at something very different and we need to prepare for taxes rising, but also, take advantage of certain opportunities today. as you say, we have got about six weeks left to get it done. >> let talk about some of those advantages, because it's such a scary story really. >> yes. >> if you've had a decent year in the market and you have some

gapes, a lot of people are talking about apple, for instance, there's some thought that maybe if you have a pretty decent gape in apple, do you take those profits this year? do you accelerate your income at this point? >> well, think about what's happening to capital gapes tax rates. we are at 15% today, slated to go up to 20% in january, plus you have the specter of the new medicare tax, which now we know who won the election, so we know that tax is going to stay into place. that's 3.8% on unearned income and it's 90 basis points or .9% on earned income. so, what that means for capital gains tax, we are about 24%. we are looking at a 24% hit. capital gains, realizing those gains, if that is the right investment decision, 'cause at jpmorgan, we look at both tax impact as well as investment decisions. taking those gains today, making

a lot of sense. if you have conviction about that's set, you can, within the parameters of the wash sales rules, buy that stock back again with an increased basis. if you have to the a gain in am, take some of those gains and you can go back in and buy the stock. >> exactly. you are not upsetting your portfolio. >> situation overall? >> exactly. >> what about donations to children, donations -- estate complications, change dramatically in the new year, what do you do now? >> this is what i refer to. we are at an incredible point for transfer tax, really the trade of the year. i was at a breakfast this morning and a lead investors at jpmorgan said you really -- i can tell you what to do with your money but you really should be talking to your tax and estate advisers because the alpha that we can add to families goes into 20, 30 or 40%. here's y everybody today can transfer up to $5.12 million

free of estate tax or gift tax to any family member, married couple, $10.24 million. what that means today is that anybody can make these transfers to family members and stay in trust smiles to perpetuity. if you wait until january 1st those transfer amounts are slated to roll back to $1 million. a dramatic change. so, for the ultrahigh net worth person, you want to look at that trade and get that done. >> get that checkbook out. joanne, thank you very much. hopefully, we won't go over that fiscal cliff, you never know. >> be prepared. >> thank you very much. art, as you know, is also an investment and christie's is holding a blockbuster auction tonight. rothko and matisse and many, many more are coming under the hammer. we have a exclusive sneak peek at some of those works for you. plus, we sent native long islander gary kaminsky back home to take on the long island power authority.

>> we are near my hometown where two weeks after the tragic hurricane, thousands are still without power. that story coming up on power lunch. chv is what drives us to broadcast the world's biggest events in 3d, or live to your seat high above the atlantic ocean. it's what drives us to create eco-friendly race tracks, batteries that power tomorrow's cars, nearly indestructible laptops, and the sustainable smart towns of the future. at panasonic, we're driven to make what matters most better. just another way we're engineering a better world for you. can i still ship a gift in time for christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery.

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markets are closing now. i'm sharon epperson at the new york mercantile exchange. gold future close at 1725 an ounce, down about $6, but holding steady here as we see demand from china, from india, supportive of prices although, of course, gold following the markets. forecasts from barically's saying itth is the time to be overweight gold, unambiguously positive to have more qe. other metals to watch, palladium, certainly, biggest gaper of 4% on the session, big one-day for palladium, supply concerns out of russia and south africa, also supportive of the platinum market. if you want to play these metals as a retail investors, look at the etfs. to the action here at the nyse, bob pisani here on the nyse floor. last words out of your mouth were much better that yesterday. what kind of steady as she goes?

>> even on the vans decline line. volume is light to moderate a heck of a lot better that yesterday. best volume in a long time. and a very strong european close. that was the big factor, big speculation again about spain being involved in perhaps the ecb coming and buying spam nish bonds, all vague speculation but helped the spam nish close and the european close. here is sector up today for the first time this month, utility stocks. they have been slammed on speculation on the fiscal cliff, of course, dividend payers have to pay higher taxes, the first time, sue, in nine trading sessions, the utilities on the upside a lot of the big utility names you see down 7, 8%. some of this, some of it is due to hurricane sandy but much on speculation on the fiscal cliff. retails a great day. home depot, 12-year high good reports from dick's sporting good, tjx, michael kors.

the head of home depot very neutral, putty, toll to the upside. >> good to see you as always. thank you, my dear. seema mody to the nasdaq, she is following the big movers. >> technology a sore spot for the markets now the s and p tech index trading in correction territory, microsoft down on the departure of the windows division head. management shakeups the street likes, this one they clearly don't a quick check on social media stocks, facebook shares under a little bit of pressure as the street braces for a possible postlockup selling, the biggest lockup since facebook went public. roughly 800 million shares, sue, back to you. >> thank you very much, seem ma. to the bond market now, rick santelli is tracking the action for us at the cme. how are yields doing today, ricky? >> still continues to be a one-way market. the only thing we a by how big of a one-way street is it on? today, only a couple of basis points. look at a chart starting august

1st most important feature, close to a two-month low in yields on the ten yours as well as the 30 as well as the bond. if we look at foreign exchange, very important, see october 1st dollar index, hey what is going on? dollar index is doing well. things really be that bad? however, we note dollar index is euro centric, separate the euro. look at it since october 1st. pretty much down. then look at it against the yep. against the canadian. look at it against the pound. all look kind of the same? absolutely. the were the dollar index is up is because of the weakness in euro, which is showing up against a multitude of cross traced. sue, tyler, back to you. >> thank you very much. nassau county out on long island, a little ways out from new york city, the 12th wealthiest county in the u.s. for mon than two weeks now, tens of thousands of lipa, long island power customers have been without electricity because of hurricane sandy. protests have been mounting as angry long islanders picket

their only option for power. and today, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of all of the residents of nassau county. some angry long islanders are now filing lawsuits of their own. our gary kaminsky lives in a town that just got power back. we sent it out there with two cameras to show what -- >> like we have been here for 100 years. i'm in this very wealthy community of nassau county where residents are still waiting for power to be restored. this is not afghanistan or iraq. this is the village of old westbury, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the entire united states. if you take a look at these wires here, these wires have been down on the ground for two weeks. i'm here with a local resident, herb, entrepreneur and businessman, you ran a major company, you sold that business, if you had to look at lipa as a public company, as an entity, given the experience you've had here in terms of this customer service, what's your thoughts? >> i think they were terribly delinquent and i would not be happy doing business with that type of company.

i would seek elsewhere. >> the american society of civil engineers gives our energy infrastructure a d-plus grade. look that the devastation two weeks after the storm hit. i give our infrastructure an f. this is infrastructure. this is america. this is 2012. this is two weeks after the storm hit. this is despicable. screws come from all over the united states to help in this recovery effort. i'm joined here by jerry up from nashville, tennessee. jerry, talk to me about the communication. what was it like when you first got up here? >> it seems like it was slow, real, real slow here. you know, seemed like people -- seemed like a lot of people didn't know what was going on. >> one of the biggest questions facing all of nassau county is that they don't have utility poles. they have been waiting for poles, the rulers were the poles were coming down from montreal. there were other stories that the poles were in customs, immigration was holding them up. well, guess what, we found the poles. when did these polls get delivered here to the park, do you know? >> i have no idea. i have only about here since

saturday. >> you know where these poles came from? >> no idea. nobody had any coordination. no organization. you should hope, if you live in an area that's gonna get hit by a hurricane, that there is preplanning that goes into place. these poles should have been in position before that hurricane was even up past north carolina. >> all right. gary, before we go any further, we have called the long island power authority several times and invited them to join us today on the program. and we have asked for a statement. no statement. nothing. so, there is a tremendous, gary, amount of frustration out there. what i have been hearing is that the crews have been on scene, ready to work, and no one tells them where to go, what to do. >> that's exactly what we saw, tyler. again this is not about line patch. important for people to understand. most utilities are a public company. lipa is not a public company. >> what is it? >> lipa is run by the government, the state of new york ounce the lines, they then create a board, andrew cuomo

runs that board and they license out the actual management of the company right now to national grid. but it's important for people to understand. what we saw yesterday was incomp tense, mismanagement, lies to customers, clients, just no communication whatsoever. we brought one guy from nashville, tennessee, in that package on the everybody, i will say the guys come from out of state, they say they have never seen anything like it many of them worked katrina, many worked -- spent extensive time repairing lines, never seen lack of maintenance, lack of management, lack of understanding. they called the situation the worst they have ever seen. that's why with many of these condition, tyler, being public, so important for investors to understand what could happen f this was a stock this would be at zero now. zero. >> the management would be out of there today. they would be done? >> correct. >> talk about another guy that you met a major player on wall street and his experience. again, here we are, new york city, parts of downtown, 55 water street, major building downtown still without power. we actually ran into a gentleman in the local deli here, a great place everybody goes to he was

in there for the free wifi because he lives in old west bury, works in downtown manhattan, actually in there i think we have a picture of him, there he is, basically having to access online and do his job from there. again, much of the national media has left this. this is still happening and this is now over two weeks since the disaster. >> absolutely a terrible situation for so manyinvestor i these companies, make sure it is not managed by line patch. this is what you pay the high rates for. >> wonderful story there mary thompson now for a market flash. mary? >> tyler, western union is what we are focused on right now, 2.6%. you might recall a couple weeks ago the company lowered the full-year guidance but today a pop from reports that its ceo, one of its directors as well as chairman bought a total of 39,000 shares that's helping to lift its shares which, again, about two weeks ago took hit when it lowered its full-year guidance.

sue, back to you. >> thank you, mary. next up, the art of investing. check this out. it's andy warhol's statue of liberty. it is expected to go for more than $35 million at christie's blockbuster auction tonight. it's set up to be a record-breaking event with works by rothko and liechtenstein and also coming under the hammer tonight, we have an exclusive sneak peek for you coming up next on power lunch. [ male announcer ] this is steve. he loves risk. but whether he's climbing everest, scuba diving the great barrier reef with sharks, or jumping into the market, he goes with people he trusts, which is why he trades with a company that doesn't nickel and dime him with hidden fees. so he can worry about other things, like what the market is doing and being ready, no matter what happens,

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mary thompson with a market flash here, details about omega advisers, lee i don't cooperman. street insider reporting a 13 f filing that has been shows these are the stakes he has initiated new stakes in as of september 30th.

you can see some, at mel, c trip, family dollar, fortress, some others here, tivo, spdr, polycom. wall green's. today's yahoo! question, we asked best buy holds an investor meeting today, the stock is down 40% the past year. so, will you advice say the big box store this holiday season? 22% said yes, just to look. 36% said yes, and i will do some buying and 42% said i have no need for them anymore. today at 2 p.m. eastern time on street since, the cia sex scandal. is anything online ever private? plus, the big windows shakeup at microsoft. the ce. of nokia is on the show. his company betting big on windows and he used to work at microsoft. finally, google taking on apple and the ipad with on two fronts first with a tablet and now a new notebook.

will it work? that is at 2 p.m. today on street since. ty? christie's, as you probably know, already has sold $3.5 billion, with a b, worth of art so far this year and tomorrow evening it will auctioneerly half a billion worth more in postwar and con temporary works. and they include just an amazing list, a very rare franz klein will be going off the book, a roy liechtenstein, a gear hard richter, a mark rothko and the highlight of the show is andy war hall's 3-d silk screen of the statue of liberty. it's a power lunch exclusive right now. christie's brett gorvy is with us with that warhol behind him and joined by cnbc's wealth editor, robert frank. nice tough here with us. congratulations ahead of time because i think it's going to be quite an amazing evening for you. >> we have had an amazing weekend so far.

we had a view on saturday and people have been coming in the mood here is incredible and i think the market is responding not just to quality but the full range of material that you listed earlier. it really is going to be an amazing evening. >> let's talk about why the art market is so hot right now, and why the international interest now is so diverse. it used to just be asia and perhaps russia. now we are seeing south america, more european buyers coming in, so it's once again broadening out what is it about the hard asset of art that you think in this environment makes the market so hot? >> well, first of all, we have seep very much established growth, you know, even in the worst moment of the market, 2009, february 2009, we had the eve st. laurent sale in paris, world record prices achieved, $30, $40 million the worst part of the market. and that topped growth has been very much encouraging bidding, encouraging buying as well as

encouraging great collectors to put their work on the market. so you've got not only great demand but you've got very good supply at the highest level. >> you know, behind you is andy warhol's "statue of liberty," we just showed it the estimate is about 35 million. do you think it might go for more than that and if so, where do you think the interest will come from, domestic or international? >> i think we will be looking at a market which is truly global. i think one of the things which has established the postwar contemporary market so much above any other market is fact we are not reliant on one economy. we are seeing very, very strong new emerging buyers coming out of the middle east, coming out of late.america and we have got the older collectors, very, very strong american. i think this is one of the things a bit of a fallacy you that the americans have dried up. the americans are incredibly strong and very, very seasoned in what they have about doing so they know when greatness comes. off warhol such as this, 1962, the best of class, incredibly rare, there's only one other

like this, it's in the museum, the warhol museum. we are talking about something which is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and people come out to bid on an object like this >> robert, let me turn to you as we take a look at jeff coops' "tulips", the estimate between 20 and 30 million. talk to me about what mr. gorvy just said, the domestic appetite for this hard asset for art is very strong, the fallacy that perhaps it's only from overseas? >> i think it has to be. look at china slowing down, art sales in china slowing down, a big drover of this market. last week was a tough start to the auctions with the impressionist sales, both you and societiby's having 20 or more pieces that went unsold. maybe that was just a strange moment with the storm and the election, but how do you explain last week and are people nervous right now about the cliff in the united states, when they are looking to buy these expensive pieces? >> i think, first of all, it's a level of taste.

ultimately, there has been a shift in taste. we are now seeing globa market responding very much more to the con temporary, toward produced 1945 to the present day. and that's partly a question of taste but also the availability of quality. i think what we see in a sale such as what we are presenting tomorrow night and the next day, we are able to bring to the market masterpieces, aaa objects by blue-chip artists. that is not as easy in the impressionists along the field. where we had great objects such as the monet, which made over $40 million, $43, $44 million, that demonstrated the impact of that market, but generally in that sale, as with sotheby's, we didn't see the same kind of quality that was available. so what is really driving our market in the postwarfield is this incredible taste, which has shifted toward us but also the real masterpieces that are available. the franz kline that we have is unbelievable, triple, triple a,

that is what people are responding to, a war whom of the highest quality. you can't see this in the old field, can't see that in the master, the impressionists, you can see in our field, see it in jewelry, see in categories where there is still availability of this greatness. we are in an icon market. >> very quickly, mr. gorvy, the franz kline, untight tighted, $20 million is the name of t speak to me about the lick ten stipe, if you could. what do you think that will go for? >> the liechtenstein, we have prepared this market by coming to sale with what we believe are very conservative estimates. i brought to power lunch in the past pictures where warhol's estimated 20 to 30 made $38 million. i brought lick ten stipes which made world record price of $42 million. so, we are dealing here with a market which is really on the rise and we brought a great painting by liechtenstein. it is one of his late paintings, it is '95, but it's -- all of these paintings at the end of

the artist's life went into museums some you have got a painting estimated $12 to $18 million, probably make 20-plus. >> we are very glad that you make power lunch your home. and come show us these wonderful, wonderful pieces. thank you both very much. ty? >> sue, goldman sachs set to unveil its highly coveted partnership list but it's expected to be the smallest in more than a decade u is the golden age of goldman over? plus, he was the nation's top spy master. you'd think jeep petraeus would know about tracking e-mail. so, what is it about e-mail that people still don't get when it comes to hiding secrets?

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the french actor gerard depardieu is saying awe rev war, to move to belgium to avoid the new sky-high tax. france raised the top rate on

the rich to 75%. there you go. voila. time for the run down with cnbc's cindy herman and john carney. the "wall street journal" says goldman is expected to slash the number of part mothers just 70 new names this time around, the lowest number of coveted partners since lloyd blank fine took over. john, you called this coldman's great deleveraging. why? >> goldman likes to talk about these people as if they are human capital but they are really human debt. they can make you a lot of money if you are one of the top executive, when times are good. but when times are bad, it actually -- they become giant cost centers. it cost a lot of money for goldman as a firm to have a lot of partners when their business slows down. they need to start cutting back. that is what they are doing. shrink the partners. >> got to pay the debt, right? >> it is an ebb and flow, i don't think anyone can be surprised. at the end of the day, i don't think we feel sorry for goldman

sachs new york matter how many vampire, squid or muppet scandals they have, they are still goldman sachs, they comes to your campus, you want an interview with them. they won't have trouble finding recruits. >> i have been known to be described as a human cost center. we have all done it fired off a personal message on your corporate e-mail account instead of your personal e-mail but you would think the nation's top spy master might be a little more savvy than the rest of us. maybe not. what do we think about this? >> i think this is just what humans do. they write letters to their lovers. someday when we figure out how to traps late the cave paintings we found in france, what we will find out some guy was painting a message to his mistress and this is what's happening. going on forever and keep going on. the technology changes but the love letters stays the same. >> what do you say? >> look, i think they actually to their credit, right, used

e-mail in a smart way, used the technology, a shared g mail account, using it in draft form. there was no digital trail no matter how smart we are technology-wise, they forgot the human factor, we like to talk and don't ever understatement the power of a woman scorned. >> yes, indeed. forget "sky fall's" 88 million in ticket, wasn't 88 billion, made 88 million in ticket sales, the highest grossing entertainment launches this year, however are "halo 4" and "call of duty, black ops." is hollywood taking a back seat to the gamer? cindy, why don't you go first? >> absolutely. i mean, i love going to a good movie and i think everyone does, but the fact is if i can be in my favorite movie, come on, that's the difference between spending $10 on a movie ticket and $60 on, like, "halo 4." have you seen some of those characters? i could be hotter and know how to totally rock a firearm in that virtual world. i would pay $60 for that i think. i it is the future. >> look at the economic of the thing. you spend -- not $10 to go to a

move industry, is $30, $40 to go to a movie. you are talking about buying a video game you could play over and over again. economics all for video games, not movies. >> folks, thanks very much. in the next hour it is your chance to tell us how you would fix the fiscal cliff. think outside the box and go ahead and tweet at tweet since cnbc. we will be right back. having you ship my gifts couldn't be easier. well, having a ton of locations doesn't hurt. and my daughter loves the santa. oh, ah sir. that is a customer. let's not tell mom. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. fedex office. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one.

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you were 42 points on the dow, up 5.5 to 5.75 on the s & p nasdaq only up two-thirds of a percent, ty, the markets will be watching closely that big ceo meeting in washington tomorrow afternoon. that's absolutely true, sue. we have an hour, very special hour on power lunch that will conclude at about 1:30 with the president's news conference, which should begin roughly at that time. i guess we are gonna know a little bit more sort of day by day. that seems to be the nature of what's happening down in washington. kind of holding the market hostage. they want to see some progress. they want to see those ceos press the administration and co